"A LIFELONG DEMOCRAT, BORN ON DELAWARE DAY"

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

Delaware Democrats, reveling in their winning record,
elected John D. Daniello as their state chair, putting
themselves in the hands of a veteran political warrior
they expect to drive them hard and keep their streak
going.

The party had no illusions about what it was doing to
itself when it held a state convention Saturday in Dover
and voted unanimously for Daniello, a political player
who has been around since the 1960s as a New Castle
County councilman, congressional candidate, Cabinet
secretary and New Castle County Democratic chair, the
post he gave up to take his new assignment.

Daniello comes to the party as a master political
organizer, more comfortable delivering votes than
speeches. For anyone who prefers a spoonful of sugar to
help the medicine go down, forget it. Daniello is
straight medicine.

"Let me tell you something about John Daniello. He
never met a Republican who he thinks should hold public
office," said House Minority Leader Robert F. Gilligan.

Daniello is -- in the words of his daughter Elizabeth
Daniello Maron, a party official who nominated him -- "a
lifelong Democrat, born on Delaware Day."

As a matter of fact, Daniello's birthday was not just
on Dec. 7, the day Delaware became the first state to
ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787, but it was in
1932, a year Democrats remember for the election that
made Franklin Delano Roosevelt president.

Daniello's politics are grounded in the labor unions,
and the Republicans already are showing signs of making
it an issue. John S. Bonk, the Christiana-Mill Creek
Region Republican chair, spoke about it Thursday at a
party meeting at the Mill Creek fire hall.

Bonk, who is in the construction business, said
Daniello comes out of a labor movement that could not
compete at the job site, so it turned to government.
"Their way of gaining market share was political
involvement," he said. "After Saturday it will be
statewide. It will be a complete takeover of the
Delaware Democratic Party by organized labor."

Daniello took the gavel at a convention so serene
that no one would have gotten humorist Will Rogers'
joke, "I'm not a member of any organized political
party, I'm a Democrat."

As much as the Delaware Democrats spoil for a good
fight, they had no interest in jinxing what they have
going. The state has not voted for a Republican for
governor or president since 1988, and the Democrats hold
six of the nine statewide offices, including both U.S.
Senate seats.

The convention had but one moment of division -- a
limp effort by Karen Weldin Stewart, a former candidate
for insurance commissioner, to unseat Karen L.K.
Valentine, the national committeewoman from Kent County,
from her post representing the state party on the
Democratic National Committee.

Valentine had endorsements from Gov. Ruth Ann Minner,
Lt. Gov. John C. Carney Jr., state Treasurer Jack A.
Markell and others, including John F. Kerry, and she
crushed Stewart. The vote was announced as 200-63, but
the official tally sheet had another five votes for
Stewart, making it 200-68.

Along with Daniello and Valentine, the convention
elected these other officers, all without opposition, to
four-year terms: National Committeeman Rhett D. Ruggerio
from Wilmington; Vice Chairwoman Harriet Smith Windsor,
the secretary of state from Sussex County; Vice Chairman
James F. Hussey Jr. from New Castle County; Treasurer
Patricia M. Blevins, a state senator from New Castle
County; and Secretary Margaret Rose Henry, a state
senator from Wilmington.

If Daniello emerged as the backbone of the party, Bob
Gilligan was its voice, giving the speech that had
people talking.

The state House of Representatives, controlled as it
is by the Republicans, is a sore point for the
Democrats. Gilligan blasted the Republicans -- "Tax
cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, they don't put people first"
-- and focused the convention on overturning the
Republicans' 26-15 majority.

He handed out political buttons that read, "Six in
'06," meaning that six new Democratic representatives
elected in 2006 would give the party control. "I guess
I've got a conflict of interest. After 33 years in the
House of Representatives, I'd love to be speaker," he
quipped.

As Gilligan's remarks showed, the convention was a
time for some Democratic introspection. Coons noted the
difference between the party's local victories and its
national shortcomings, particularly in the 2008
presidential race.

"We are a nation at war," Coons said. "We had a
nation that just in the end didn't trust us."

The Delaware Democrats hold conventions only once
every four years -- unlike the state Republicans who
meet every year -- so this one had its valedictory
moments.

There were thanks for Richard H. Bayard, the outgoing
state chair who decided not to seek another term after
16 years in party office, the first half as national
committeeman and the second half as chair. Bayard's
family has been in politics since the Continental
Congress, so Carney paid tribute to him as "a yellow-dog
Democrat with blue blood."

The convention also was the last one for Minner as an
elected official, as she noted with a punch line, "By
the time you gather to elect officers in 2009, everyone
will say, 'Who?"

There also were some calling cards delivered.
Markell, the state treasurer who is running for
re-election in 2006 and maybe governor thereafter,
although Carney may have something to say about that,
laid his card down by hosting the convention breakfast.

Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, the senator's son who is
the party's dream candidate for attorney general next
year against three-term Republican M. Jane Brady, had
his card delivered for him -- by the governor, no less.

"We'll elect an attorney general," Minner said to
applause. "He might be a familiar name. He'll be on the
ballot if I can talk him into it."

Mostly, though, the Democrats were having fun.
Victoria "Vikki" Bandy, the campaign manager for state
Sen. Karen E. Peterson, wore a T-shirt with the words,
"I Only Kiss Democrats," and a caricature of a donkey on
it.